CB Bears


CB Bears is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, which aired on NBC from September 10 to December 3, 1977.
As with many Hanna-Barbera shows of the time, CB Bears was an anthology series with six regular segments: The CB Bears; Blast-Off Buzzard; Heyyy, It's the King!; Posse Impossible; Shake, Rattle & Roll; and Undercover Elephant. Each segment riffed on a popular television show or film.
The CB Bears segment was a spoof on the 1976 hit show Charlie's Angels, with a trio of ursine investigators given assignments by an unseen dispatcher. Similarly, Heyyy, It's the King! was a takeoff on the 1974 hit Happy Days, with a royal lion based on Henry Winkler's famous Fonzie. Blast-Off Buzzard imitated Looney Tunes' Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner; Posse Impossible was a cowboy show caricaturing John Wayne; Shake, Rattle & Roll featured a trio of ghosts imitating comics Hugh Herbert, Lou Costello and Marty Allen; and Undercover Elephant spoofed Mission: Impossible.
On February 4, 1978, NBC repackaged the show as part of the two-hour The Go-Go Globetrotters, which also featured reruns of the Harlem Globetrotters series. This lasted until September 3.

Syndication

In syndication, CB Bears was shown in a shortened half-hour format with Blast-Off Buzzard and Posse Impossible; Heyyy, It's the King! was also shown in a shortened half-hour format with Shake, Rattle & Roll and Undercover Elephant. The show was also rebroadcast on Cartoon Network from 1995 to 1997. The CB Bears theme is also heard in the ending credits of The Skatebirds on CBS and Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels on ABC.

Segments

The CB Bears

Hustle, Boogie and Bump are a trio of anthropomorphic bear detectives disguised as trash collectors. They travel the country solving mysteries in a tacky garbage truck called the Perfume Wagon. A sultry-voiced female named Charlie contacts the bears on the truck's CB radio to give them their assignments. This show was "inspired" by the hit TV series Charlie's Angels. Each of the bears' names are based on a 1970s disco dance, and the show's overall premise made reference to the CB radio craze of the mid-1970s. Physically and personality-wise, Hustle, Boogie, and Bump resemble Hair Bear, Bubi Bear, and Square Bear, respectively, from the earlier cartoon Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch!; Daws Butler provided the same Phil Silvers-esque voice for both Hustle and Hair.

Episodes

Blast-Off Buzzard

Blast-Off Buzzard is a buzzard in aviator gear and a de facto villain who chases Crazylegs, a wacky football helmet-wearing snake who outruns the buzzard. Their situation was very similar to Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. This is a non-speaking segment.

Episodes

Heyyy, It's the King!

A cool, Fonzie-patterned lion named King alongside his high school classmates Big H the Hippopotamus, Clyde the Gorilla, Skids the Alligator, Yuka Yuka the Hyena, and cheerleaders Sheena the Lioness and Zelda the Ostrich attempt schemes to get into the spotlight.

Episodes

Posse Impossible

The Sheriff of Saddlesore and his hopeless posse of cowboys: Stick, Big Duke and Blubber jail notorious outlaws by out-bungling the rascals. In every segment, the Sheriff goes after some no-good polecat which ends with the bad guys behind bars.
A prototype version of the posse was featured in the final episode of Hong Kong Phooey.

Episodes

Shake, Rattle & Roll

Shake, Rattle, and Roll are three ghosts who run the Haunted Inn, a hotel for ghosts and other supernatural creatures as they tend to their needs. Their workplace hijinks are sometimes disrupted by self-proclaimed "ghost exterminator" and nemesis Sidney Merciless who wants to rid the world of ghosts. Shake, Rattle, and Roll also tend to have problems with the Ghost Mouse as their Poltercat helps in attempts to get rid of it.

Episodes

Undercover Elephant

Undercover Elephant and his sidekick Loudmouse the Mouse work for Central Control and solve mysteries. Recurring gags of this segment included disguises worn by Undercover Elephant tending to give him away, Loudmouse blowing his cover when staking out the villain, Undercover Elephant being unable to avoid the exploding messages being sent to him by his Chief, and to resist peanuts.

Episodes

Episodes

The segments indicate in colors by which characters starred in them:
  • Blue = The CB Bears
  • Lime = Blast-Off Buzzard
  • Sky Blue = Heyyy, It's the King!
  • Maroon = Posse Impossible
  • Green = Shake, Rattle & Roll
  • Orange = Undercover Elephant

    Season 1 (1977-1978)

Voice cast

All thirteen episodes of Posse Impossible were released on VHS by Hanna-Barbera Home Video on November 25, 1988. In addition, three episodes of Shake, Rattle & Roll were released on VHS as part of a compilation titled Scooby-Doo & Friends: Mostly Ghostly by Hanna-Barbera Home Video in 1990, "The Ghostly Ghoul is a Ghastly Guest", "Spooking the Spooks" and "Guess What's Coming to Dinner".
To date, the series has not been released on DVD.

Other appearances

  • Undercover Elephant appeared in some episodes of Yogi's Treasure Hunt.
  • Reruns of CB Bears and Undercover Elephant aired in the 1980s run of Captain Kangaroo.
  • Reruns of Undercover Elephant were shown as one of the fillers for the adaption of Wake, Rattle, and Roll.
  • Blast-Off Buzzard and Crazylegs appeared in an episode of Tom & Jerry Kids in which they actually talk with Blast-Off Buzzard voiced by Lewis Arquette and Crazylegs voiced by Charlie Adler.
  • Undercover Elephant made a cameo in the "Agent Penny" episode of the Super Secret Secret Squirrel segment of 2 Stupid Dogs.
  • CB Bears and The King and his classmates appeared in Jellystone! with King voiced by Bernardo de Paula. Skids and Big H are re-imagined as girls in this series. The King and his friends are depicted as criminals. Zelda the Ostrich and Undercover Elephant appear in the third season of Jellystone!. One-shot character Cool Cat appeared in the episode "Disco Fever", voiced by Dana Snyder. He has an American accent rather than an Australian accent in this series.